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Anyone here a genius at math?

nurseangela said:
I need to be Aspie. I'm reading more into it than I should be. I need to be more literal. Not only would a 5th grader have gotten that question right, but a kindergartener probably would have too! (I'm getting grumpy)
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I am not convinced that the majority of 5th graders would have gotten the question right. I am certain that few if any kindergartners would have.

These sorts of "story" questions are harder than straight math problems in some ways because they combine mathematical computations/concepts with reading comprehension. You therefore not only need math skills, but also reading/linguistic skills in order accurately respond to them. Statistics is also one of the only areas in math where there is not always one perfect answer, though this did not apply here to this problem. I hated this course in college.
 
icesyckel said:
I am not convinced that the majority of 5th graders would have gotten the question right. I am certain that few if any kindergartners would have.

These sorts of "story" questions are harder than straight math problems in some ways because they combine mathematical computations/concepts with reading comprehension. You therefore not only need math skills, but also reading/linguistic skills in order accurately respond to them. Statistics is also one of the only areas in math where there is not always one perfect answer, though this did not apply here to this problem. I hated this course in college.
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Fine. You're probably right that a kindergartener wouldn't have gotten the correct answer. I'm still feeling grumpy.
 
One key point here was something I perceived more in learning political science than mathematics. That graphical data and statistics can be manipulated deliberately to hide or even mislead people using quantitatively factual data.

Maybe you just need to adopt a methodology for every question. To surmise that every question is likely to contain data which is relevant to the answer as well as data which is not.

So your first course of action is to filter data that is relevant or irrelevant to the question. Only then attempt to mathematically solve what is actually being answered. Just a suggestion...
 
nurseangela said:
I need to be Aspie. I'm reading more into it than I should be. I need to be more literal. Not only would a 5th grader have gotten that question right, but a kindergartener probably would have too! (I'm getting grumpy)
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I think the way it was worded made it easy to misunderstand the question.
 
Ste11aeres said:
I think the way it was worded made it easy to misunderstand the question.
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Which may have actually been part of the exercise. That would really suck IMO, but it wouldn't surprise me given the very nature of the subject matter.
 
Judge said:
Which may have actually been part of the exercise. That would really suck IMO, but it wouldn't surprise me given the very nature of the subject matter.
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Statistics is a course in which many questions are designed to "trick" you. They want to test your ability to identify pertinent data since, IRL, not all data is ever pertinent. However, IRL, rarely is someone employed to answer questions designed to be "tricky." The result is that statistics course proceed from the fauly assumption that making a question "trickier" somehow makes it more analagous to analyzing statistical data IRL. Possibly in politics the goal is to outright deceive/trick someone, but usually the real life difficulty is just finding and identifying pertinent data in a sea of useless data.
 
icesyckel said:
Statistics is a course in which many questions are designed to "trick" you. They want to test your ability to identify pertinent data since, IRL, not all data is ever pertinent.
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It does make me wonder if on the outset, whether or not nurseangela's instructor prefaced such a dynamic to some degree if at all. That what one doesn't know may "hurt" them...
 
College math professors, in my experience, rely on the book to teach you - even more so when the course is partially online as Nurse's appears to be. I am sure she didn't get "prepared" for these poorly worded, intentionally confusing questions at the outset. I know my statistics prof didn't do that.
 
The test was also designed to prevent a perseverative error of possible miscalculations of (a) and (b) calculations influencing the answer to (c) if one understands that the respondent must first look at percentage change relative to unchanged within each group and not first across the groups. In this case, the right hand column of unchanged is a number that, if doubled, is very close to the total unchanged in the left column. Therefore, you can do quick mental calculation by doubling the top right number to compare it to the left - and see the a greater percentage are changed over that of the left, under these instructions.

Now, statistically speaking, I would want to see more groups to see if this is actually statistically significant! The sheer number of people in the two groups is not enough to power this as a study. You need more groups with the two sets of instructions...
 
2aspirin said:
The test was also designed to prevent a perseverative error of possible miscalculations of (a) and (b) calculations influencing the answer to (c) if one understands that the respondent must first look at percentage change relative to unchanged within each group and not first across the groups. In this case, the right hand column of unchanged is a number that, if doubled, is very close to the total unchanged in the left column. Therefore, you can do quick mental calculation by doubling the top right number to compare it to the left - and see the a greater percentage are changed over that of the left, under these instructions.

Now, statistically speaking, I would want to see more groups to see if this is actually statistically significant! The sheer number of people in the two groups is not enough to power this as a study. You need more groups with the two sets of instructions...
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This is in response to the first question Nurse posted, not the second, in case that helps (unless I am wrong 2aspirin, then please correct me).
 
icesyckel said:
College math professors, in my experience, rely on the book to teach you - even more so when the course is partially online as Nurse's appears to be. I am sure she didn't get "prepared" for these poorly worded, intentionally confusing questions at the outset. I know my statistics prof didn't do that.
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Let's hope not. If her instructor is seriously relying on that text alone, I'd say the entire class is in for some real grief. :eek:
 
The answer to B, which is 9, has only one home with the nine TV's. It's a trick question in a way, since it is worded so that you think there is more than one home, when there is only one.

I think that statistics questions should be customized to be more relevant to a nursing career. The math questions I did in my pharmacy course would overlap well with a nursing career-oriented statistics course. For example, "what percentage of a large group of patients experienced pain relief after taking a certain dose of pain-relief medication?"
 
nurseangela said:
What in the hell is wrong with me?! I can't understand why I got this question wrong! I feel like crying.
Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I thought the answer to B is 3.

View attachment 12581
View attachment 12582
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Is it just me, or does the fact that the pixels of the bars aren't properly aligned with the lines on the graph bother anyone else too? I mean, say for question 1 I could easily have answered 4.2 homes don't have a television. Or maybe it's just because the pictures enlarged. (nitpicking, I know, but it's math, so things should be precise. :D)
 
Another not so good thing is that the professor does his lectures with slides and I try to write it all down, but he goes too fast. I'm recording the class and hope this will help. There's this one guy who's probably not even drinking age that is coming up with all these solutions that even the professor hasn't thought of -- it's just nauseating! :rolleyes:
 
icesyckel said:
Well, I understood you, but I wanted to be sure is all. Interacting with NT's has made me an "abundance of caution" sort of guy for pragmatic reasons.
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Oh yeah. Reminds me of my attorney coaching me on the importance of limited, concise answers in depositions ! I'd think it would be tough- stressful for you on a daily basis. Would be me...
 
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